Yo! We're going back in time a bit for the next three or so chapters, because I'd like to briefly cover the tournament from Violet's POV. I'm just letting you know because I don't want anyone to be confused by the sudden backtracking. Anyway, thank you to all readers so far!

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of its characters...

There was a lot in life that Violet Potter didn't understand. She didn't understand the Dursleys. She didn't understand magic. She didn't understand the Wizarding world. She didn't understand the peaceful lives her friends were fortunate enough to have. She didn't understand how the law worked. She didn't understand this war that was obviously going to happen. And she didn't understand anything about soulmates.

It was...such a strange concept-strange, but natural at the same time. Having a soulmate was considered more natural than not having one, and Violet had always thought that to be so...odd. Being bound to a person, usually one a person knew little to nothing about, and having everyone treat it like it was some-some amazing, fantastic thing was just-just...weird.

Violet knew she had a soulmate though, because there was a mark on her left wrist. It had been there for as long as she could remember, but she hadn't really known what it was at first. She recognized that there was a flower in the middle, but the shape around the flower-the thing the flower was sitting in the centre of, she hadn't recognized until she had gotten older, at which point she had realized it sort of looked like a witch's cauldron-like from those fairy tales.

But she had no idea who her soulmate could be. She hadn't ever bothered asking the Dursleys anything about it, because she knew they hated her even more because she had a soulmark while her cousin Dudley didn't. So she had just kept it all to herself, her thoughts, her questions, everything, reading up on soulmates instead, though she hadn't learned very much since everyone experienced things differently.

Yes, she had a soulmate somewhere out there, but there was no way of knowing whether she would ever meet them or not. The world was a big place filled with lots and lots of people, and her soulmate was just one among the billions. Meeting them, or even finding out who they were just seemed so...impossible.

That was okay though. She didn't need a soulmate. She was doing perfectly fine on her own. Sort of. Okay, not really, but what could she do about it?

It wasn't like her soulmate would end up being some Prince Charming who could whisk her away from the Dursleys so she could live happily ever after. She had never honestly believed that. It seemed like something that was just too good to be true. So she thought herself to be better off on her own, learning to get around the Dursleys' stupidity instead. It wasn't even that hard! It-it wasn't!

And then, when she was eleven, she learned that she was a witch and ended up going to Hogwarts right after, which had brought forth a whole slew of even more things she didn't understand and soon, worrying about soulmates and the Dursleys became the least of her problems.

Sorted into Gryffindor, she made a couple of close friends very quickly, and over the years, ended up getting into a whole slew of trouble, some of which was her own fault and others...less so.

First year ended with a near death experience. Second year did too. Third year did as well. Really, Hogwarts was starting to become more dangerous than Number Four! Violet was actually very excited to learn about the Tri-Wizard Tournament in her fourth year, figuring this would be the first year where she could just stay out of the spotlight and focus on her studies and friends.

But of course that wasn't what happened. Of course her name just happened to come shooting out of the Goblet of Fire. Of course she ended up being the fourth competitor in the tournament that was only supposed to have three people in it. Of course it meant she was too busy freaking out to study. Of course it meant her friendship with her best friend grew strained to a point of non-existence. Of course no one had any idea who had put her name in the Goblet in the first place. Of course.

But she didn't have too much time to focus on any of that. The very first task was barely two weeks away, and she had no idea what it even was, let alone what she was supposed to do. The other competitors started training right away, but with three more years of experience than Violet had, even without training, they had a rather large edge over her.

And of course, the professors weren't allowed to help the competitors, which left Violet at even more of a disadvantage. What the hell was she supposed to do? How was she supposed to train? What was she supposed to train on? What spells was she supposed to practice?

It was the Weasley twins who were the first to give her some answers. Since they weren't professors, there were no rules against them helping, and that included giving away information that they had learned themselves, no matter what way. So they approached her just a few days after.

"Whoa! Wha-?"

"Shh, listen!" said Fred.

"We've got something to tell you," said George. "But we'd rather no one else overhear."

Violet blinked. "Okay...? What is it?"

"We got a letter from Charlie just this morning," said Fred. "He said he'll be here on Hogwarts' grounds."

"Why?"

"Apparently he, along with a large group of other dragon tamers are bringing dragons, four of them, here," said George. "They're all fully grown nesting mothers, apparently."

Violet cocked her head, and then paled, eyes widening. "Wait, f-four dragons? Doesn't that mean-"

Fred nodded. "Yeah, we think it's pretty likely that these dragons have something to do with the first task."

"Charlie didn't tell us what, exactly," added George. "We can ask him and see if he'll tell us. If it's not against any of the rules, I'm pretty sure he'll have no problem explaining. He's worried about you too."

"Just give us a couple of hours," said Fred, "and we'll see what else we can get out of him."

And when Violet nodded, the twins hurried off to presumably either write to or find their brother, leaving Violet alone again. She sighed, dragging her fingers through her hair. Dragons, huh? She had only ever had one experience with dragons before, and that had been Norbert, who had only been a baby. How was she possibly going to be able to do anything against a fully grown dragon?

And what did they even have to do? Fight the dragons? Escape from them? Probably not kill them, but...what?

As promised, Fred and George returned just under two hours later, this time with more information for her. They had managed to talk to Charlie again, and their older brother had, as they had been hoping, been able to tell them more about the task. The four champions had to steal a golden egg from a nest of actual dragon eggs, without breaking the eggs or hurting the dragon, or getting hurt themselves.

"Violet!?" Hermione, who Violet had just finished telling about what she had learned, lunged forward to grab her friend as she began to slide down, Violet's knees suddenly having gone weak. Carefully, Hermione lowered her down to the floor, helping her lean against the wall.

"What do I do, Hermione?" Violet asked quietly, tilting her head back. "How'm I supposed to beat a dragon?"

Hermione leaned back as well, her brow pinched. "You don't have to beat the dragon though. You just have to get the egg, don't you?"

"Yeah...I guess it's impossible for me to actually beat the dragon anyway."

"Exactly. Dragons' are very thick skinned. Or scaled, I suppose. Spells just bounce off them because of the scales. I don't think you should do anything to the dragon itself."

"Don't cast any spells on it, you mean? What does that leave me with?"

"Hmm...yes, I suppose you won't be able to actually summon the egg to you. That would be too simple. I think you should stick with spells you're familiar with. You don't really have time to learn anything new anyway."

That made perfect sense. She had barely more than a week until the task, and even though she was a quick learner, mastering an entirely new higher level spell that quickly just seemed to be really unlikely. So she and Hermione sat there for what easily could have been hours, talking and discussing and debating, before finally coming to a decision on what would be the best thing for Violet to do...

On the morning of the first task, Violet followed the other three champions to the tent where they were then told what the task was. Violet saw no signs of surprise. It seemed like she wasn't the only one who had somehow learned what was going to happen ahead of time.

She quickly found out that she would be going not only last, but against the worst of the four dragons as well which, at this point, wasn't even particularly surprising. So she waited, and worried, and very nearly threw up more than once, and eventually found herself entering the stadium.

The dragon was-was huge. Violet had to crane her neck to look at it, and swore all the blood in her body was draining. She could hear so much noise, but it was all rushing in her ears incoherently. She just stared at the dragon without moving. And then she remembered what she and Hermione had practised and planned.

Fighting to regain her focus, she pulled out her wand and called out a loud and firm, "Accio Firebolt!" She needed to be fast to get the egg away from the dragon, and being on foot the entire time was never going to be quick enough. In the air though, that was another story.

She caught hold of her broom when it approached, mounted it quickly and shot off into the air, using that moment to settle her nerves. Then she lowered back down a bit, focused on every single good memory and feeling she had, and, "Expecto Patronum!"

A large, bright stag burst out of the end of her wand, moving towards the dragon, whose head followed its motions closely. She breathed fire at it, though not even that helped to vanish it. The Hungarian Horntail let out a loud roar and finally began to move away from the nest of eggs at her feet so she could try to chase away the patronus, and here, Violet wasted no time.

Shooting forward, Violet grabbed the large, golden egg, hitched it under her arm as best as she could, and then flew back away from the nest and the dragon, back towards the stadium's entrance as her patronus disappeared. Safe, she dismounted her broom, shouldered it, and then, squaring her shoulders, she walked away, ignoring the call of her name when she didn't return to look at the scores she had been awarded.

She couldn't care less about those.

Instead, she began making her way back to Hogwarts, though she was still a fair distance away before the urge to be sick finally overwhelmed her and she collapsed to her knees, retching into the nearby bushes, puking up the meagre breakfast Hermione had made her consume.

"Potter."

Startled, Violet jumped slightly, coughed, then turned on her knees, wiping her mouth on her sleeve and wincing internally when she saw Snape approaching her. "Sorry, sir," she said quickly, mostly automatically.

Snape raised a brow. "Are you well, Potter?"

Well, obviously she wasn't, but she knew he knew that too, and simply nodded, feeling somewhat awkward and embarrassed. She supposed it was a good thing she wasn't at Privet Drive. Uncle Vernon would have already hit her for being sick, and Aunt Petunia would have yelled at her before making her clean it up. "I'm okay. Sorry, I just..."

"The nerves finally got to you?"

Why wasn't he making fun of her? Why wasn't he berating her? "I guess. Er, sir."

"...Do you require a Calming Draught?"

This was getting kind of weird. "No thank you. I'm okay now." She quickly got up to her feet, picking up the golden egg she had dropped a few moments before.

"Very well. Allow me to escort you to the castle. Go to bed early. Eat something if you are able to. You look far too pale."

Violet blinked, feeling very caught off guard by this entire encounter. "Y-yes, sir." She followed Snape the rest of the way back to the castle and into the Entrance Hall, at which point he remained back while she began making her way up the stairs. She was sure she could still feel his eyes on her, but when she peeked back around the corner, she saw him standing where he had stopped, pinching the bridge of his nose.

Snape had been...surprisingly kind to her there. Violet wasn't sure if that was something she was supposed to feel happy about, or suspicious. Perhaps a mix of both.

That's it for now. The next chapter should cover the Yule Ball and second task, and then the one after that should be the remainder of fourth year, and then the one after that should start off fifth year or at least that summer. Looking forward to reviews! Laterz!